


Stoned

by GillO



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jossverse
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-02-22
Packaged: 2018-05-22 12:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6079911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GillO/pseuds/GillO
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy watches Giles try to get information from Spike, using a certain stone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stoned

Giles was wary of magic McGuffins, however much he had had to make use of them professionally. The Prokaryote stone reminded him far too much of a vampire’s thrall in its effects, and if there was a sort of fitting irony in watching this particular vampire enthralled by the memories aroused by it, listening to his one-sided conversations palled very quickly. He seemed to switch from a wet ponce to the vicious animal Giles knew was always just under the surface and, confusingly, back again. There seemed to be moments that were almost touching, with an unidentified woman, and then a mother-figure, and some sort of sex-siren, and moments which were only just the right side of scary because he was at no risk of escape, and in too much torment even to try. The talking really didn’t seem to go anywhere and did nothing to resolve his overriding anxiety. 

His anxiety sat back on her ankles, gazing intently at the writhing creature. After Spike had gone silent ( _blessed relief_ ), she had reached for him, and only quick thinking had allowed Giles to grab her hand and prevent her touching him. “Buffy, I know you are worried,” he said, “but breaking a mesmeric trance induced by supernatural elements could have unforeseen deleterious consequences.”

She shook her head and glanced at Willow for enlightenment. “It could hurt his mind, breaking a trance suddenly,” she explained. 

“I think the G-man had it right on that one,” Xander interrupted, “I don’t think we have too much need to worry about that.”

“Xander,” Giles tried to keep his voice severe, “I said that for Spike’s benefit. Would you prefer to have a tame vampire or a dangerously crazed one?”

Xander subsided, though Buffy thought she caught, “ _And the difference is?_ ” beneath his breath.

These guys might have been her oldest and dearest friends in Sunnydale, but right now they were really not being the helpfullest buddies ever. She opened her mouth to point this out when Spike shuddered and writhed, his eyes jerking open as his intense gaze followed something invisible to all but him.

He started muttering, too faintly for her to hear most of it. The language seemed tangled, outdated and just plain weird. _Her eyes, balls of honey. Angel's harps her laugh._ Angel? What had he got to do with it? Was he with Drusilla and the rest of that gang somewhere inside his head? What were they doing and who were they doing it to? Buffy didn’t like to think about those days, when the Scourge of Europe had been 50% composed of her own future vampire lovers, and it gave her the wiggins to think they were so important his mind jumped straight there.

Lots of other things wigged her out more as the experiment proceeded, though. When he vamped out and the vile thing slid away from his eye it was almost a relief. It was not easy to have Spike so physically close, ( _so very physical_ ) but to have him there and not there, trapped in some world of his past, a world she had no possible part in, that was much, much harder. Her decision to remove the chains, even against the advice of Giles and the clear, vicious hatred of Robin, was a pretty much automatic one after that. Whatever their past, he was no animal to be caged up, not now, not after the journey, the ordeal, the return, all for her sake.

She pointed out to Giles that the prophylactic stone wasn’t working. Spike gave her an odd smirk at that. Oh, Buffy language causes unintentional hilarity again. As she leaned in to him, though, only she caught his words. 

“Learned something, pet. Learned your eyes are better by far. Learned to see you in comparison. I dare not presume, not now, not any more. But I know what you are.”

She mulled that one over for the next hour, while the practicalities of sorting out her men friends – and keeping some of them apart – dragged on. When she finally had the chance to ask him, he shook his head, as if he could barely recall his own words. Not so very strange, considering what he’d been put through. She fixed her gaze on his eyes, watching him struggle to focus, then narrow his brows, before meeting her look.

“Know what you are, pet. The best. That’s all. Not mine. Never could hope for that now. But you’re the one, in all the world. The one who makes it worth staying in it.”


End file.
